John Paul Ii Pope

Cancer is cured. Bleeding is stopped. Third-degree burns vanish overnight. These and many, many more examples are on record as authenticated miracles that are the essential -- and most unusual -- step in the naming of a saint by the pope, leader of the world's Roman Catholic Church. John Paul II, who on Thursday marks 25 years as pontiff, has set the record for canonizing saints and beatifying potential saints.

Pope John Paul II's two-day visit to Los Angeles next month is being welcomed by government leaders as their first major opportunity to employ the lessons of the 1984 Olympics, particularly in averting downtown traffic gridlock. Plans are being laid to reschedule truck deliveries, arrange commuter car pools and beef up public transit service--strategies that combined to produce a smooth traffic flow during the Summer Games.

There can be no reprieve for divorced and remarried Catholics, the Vatican told bishops around the world Friday. Stiffly reaffirming a traditional teaching that is disregarded by millions, the Vatican said that Roman Catholics who break their marriage vows remain within the church but cannot receive Communion even if they feel able to do so with a clear conscience.

Saints are the icons of their church, but there will be acrimony as well as reverence Sunday when Pope John Paul II beatifies a controversial Spanish priest in what opponents call a rush to judgment. In perhaps the most contentious beatification in modern times, John Paul will honor Msgr. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, founder of the disciplined, ultraconservative Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei. Beatification will leave the Blessed Escriva one step short of sainthood.

Only a little more than a week before Pope John Paul II arrives with a message of peace for the world's youth, Colorado officials are struggling with overdue logistical planning for the largest gathering in Denver history and an alarming rise in violent street crimes. Over the past week, two boys and a 12-year-old girl were hospitalized and one man killed in separate drive-by shootings.

When the future Pope John Paul II visited Los Angeles 11 years ago, he got to do a little leisurely sightseeing, going to Marineland, Griffith Park and Forest Lawn. But then, he was only a Polish cardinal. No time for any of that on Tuesday and Wednesday: The Southland schedule of the supreme head of the Roman Catholic Church has been laid out to the last minute as he segues from event to event in a whirlwind of meticulously planned appearances.

On the road again, Pope John Paul II came home to Poland on Tuesday for a nostalgic and emotional visit that improbably began with a strong American accent. Embarking on the 52nd foreign trip of his reign and his fifth to Poland, the 71-year-old pontiff knelt in prayer for about five minutes before the gray-black marble tombstone where his family lies in a cemetery on the outskirts of town.

The Mafia dumped a lamb with its throat slit on the doorstep of a prison chaplain Saturday in a macabre, sneering challenge to visiting Pope John Paul II and the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church in mob-racked Sicily. "You'll end up the same way," read a note left with the lamb at anti-Mafia priest Gino Sacchetti's home in Termini Imerese on the road between Catania and Palermo, the Sicilian capital.

From the offices of His Holiness, John Paul II, comes the latest message for divorced Catholics: no sex in any new relationship, even a new marriage. The statement came from the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family last week and, around the world, hearts sank. In Los Angeles, a divorced Catholic woman engaged to remarry fretted during a physical therapy session. Her biofeedback machine went haywire. In Arlington, Va.

Pope John Paul II, whose indomitable will and defense of human dignity helped bring down communism in Eastern Europe and reshaped Christianity's relationship to Judaism, was indisputably the most influential pope of the 20th century. The first non-Italian elected pope in 456 years, John Paul energized the papacy through much of his reign, traveling as evangelist and champion of religious freedom even as he centralized authority in his church.